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Long story short. Started doing triathlons a few years ago. Bought a TT bike this year believing it would make me awsumz. Then proceeded to be rubbish on it. Basically I think I'm too old, too stiff, too fat, too unfit and have too little time to make it work for me. Time to brave telling the wife.
Who else has bought a bike they can't live up to?
Bit of a sad state of affairs for any man to be afraid of what his Wife thinks in this situation.
Tell her it's broken, then boast about how you got more than it's worth when you sell it.
Pretty much every bike I’ve bought if I’m being honest. Mountain bikes are so good now I’ll never possess the skills to do one justice.
me
also bought a TT bike and was a not so serious triathlon mid pack contender, realised I couldn't go for a pootle with the kids on a TT bike.
sold it and bought a nice road bike, that'll either go fast or pootle about. much happier now.
Just tell her you're selling it, N-1 usually gets you brownie points 😉
Yup, bought a TR Covert and used the full potential about 1% of the time in the 2 years I owned it. Now riding better and harder on my shorter travel Scout.
After a period of other things taking the place of cycling in my life (but not entirely replacing them) I got caught up in the MAMIL wave, joined a cycling club and bought a fancy carbon Dedacciai frame a few years ago. Built it into a fancy road bike then realised I didn't like road riding much or being in a club and that I look terrible in lycra.
Sold it, bought a CX frame. Raced some CX and realised it was mostly tedious and nauseating but the bike was great for not-road riding. This lead to rediscovering love of MTBing so it's all good
Bought a Giant Faith BITD when freeriding and hucking was the thing to do.
Never saw a drop off in the three years I had it, it was a great bike thoough really plush like riding a settee everywhere.
Bought a CX bike and thought "what's the point"? I still used my MTB to do far more than that bike could ever do.
First and only time I wished a bike could be stolen.
Who else has bought a bike they can’t live up to?
Mountain bikes are so good now I’ll never possess the skills to do one justice.
This & my Orange 5. It's a better bike than I am a rider, by far. But I don't regret buying it!
This is why I try to buy a new bike type second hand before committing. I've done so in recent times with a full sus Transition Scout and a Trek Emonda (the Transition was overkill for my needs and I went back to a hardtail, but the Trek is definitely staying).
You probably just need some new wheels for your TT bike, that'll sort it.
Maybe 6-12 months after first getting into mountain biking I bought a cove gspot.
Unfortunately it didn't hit the spot with me. I was no way good or ballsy enough for a bike like that and it was really heavy for the stuff I was riding. Thankfully I realised within a month and sold it so didn't make much of a loss (bought second hand). Don't regret getting rid of it.
You probably just need some new wheels for your TT bike, that’ll sort it.
🙂
Done it too. Not the hype that sucked me in, more my own desire to own something a coveted but didn’t really need I guess.
Always wanted a Singular Swift after trying a few at SS events. Had the opportunity to replace my Roadrat commuter and I thought I could build a rigid 29er ‘lite’ using a Swift frame/forks and a similar build to my Roadrat with wider tyres.
It simply didn’t work for me. Too compromised on the tarmac/canal path sections of my route although it was great fun when I got to the singletrack. Says it all really: I was trying to use it for something other than it was designed for: singletrack.
Original thread: https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/looking-for-a-29er-with-rigid-forks-with-full-length-guard-capability-ideas/
And the “I’ve made a mistake” thread: https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/fs-singular-swift-full-bike-2-months-old/
Still riding a Roadrat now 🙂
Pretty much every bike I’ve bought if I’m being honest. Mountain bikes are so good now I’ll never possess the skills to do one justice.
This. I could fork out vast sums for six inches of plush, bottomless travel, but I'll only ever have three inches of bottle.
Only bike I've ever bought and canned within hours of getting my hands on was a Cube full sus 29er that I bought on eBay that turned out to be just too short in the top tube for me
I learned then to study geometry charts properly and compare them to what I had and what feels "right" when shopping for new bikes, instead of being tempted by blingy groupsets etc.
Long story short. Started doing triathlons a few years ago. Bought a TT bike this year believing it would make me awsumz. Then proceeded to be rubbish on it. Basically I think I’m too old, too stiff, too fat, too unfit and have too little time to make it work for me. Time to brave telling the wife.
Just tell her you've had enough triathlons and you're selling your gear, believe me she'll be over the moon!
Yep, got caught up in the "road biking is great" hype when brits starting winning things and built up a nice Van Nic for those long warm lazy days touring the countryside with nothing but a credit card in my back-pocket....
The truth eventually hit after a few years of trying that, actually, road biking is utter pish and I have far more fun on my mtb here in Scotland.
Got one of these for Christmas, too much bike for me, feel like I'm riding on pizza.
Bought a fixie to commute on in a bid to be a hipster about 10 years ago, first ride thought I would be thrown under a bus. Realised I always stopped pedalling going around tight bends and couldn't seem to change. Sold on ebay within a couple of weeks, luckily it was also the cheapest bike I ever owned.
Got one of these for Christmas, too much bike for me, feel like I’m riding on pizza.
Bet it was a lot of dough...
I've been off the bike for some years waiting for a new knee which came last year.
Wanted to get mobile again, but wasn't going to be a big road mile/gnarly mtb type rider.
Saw a fixie/singlefree bike for sale locally for £250. Couldn't resist. Got me back riding the bike; so much so that I've now bought a "proper" road bike with gears etc.
Anyone want a fixie/track bike going cheap???
Most of the ones i've sold - none of the ones I own - except the two that are on the way out!
Meta 5.5 - just never gelled - heavy & didn't climb well, ok on singletrack, great on really slow gnarly descents (of which there are zero locally) I realised it had to go when i decided to take a hardtail to the alps in preference.
Raleigh MTB converted to hub gear commuter bike - fell in love with dutch bikes in Amsterdam; I must have been high; I can't build one from a 1992 Raleigh and/or they don't work in Southampton.
Salsa Vaya. the front is too high. I spent £100s of bars, stems and having the headtube shortened. It still didn't fit!
Sold my TT bike this summer after 2/3 seasons of racing, only because it was escalting, and racing traffic assited dual carridgeways for PBs seemed less than sensible to my mind. I was good at time trialing though, I'm built for it.
Bought a CAADX CX bike "to get away from it all", "all" being the roads/cars. Riding gravel is bloody boring! Can't be arsed to race CX if I'm totally honest, so she's hanging on the wall now.
Bought a hard tail, bingo! funtimes!
Need to polish up the CAADX and get it sold.
Got one of these for Christmas, too much bike for me, feel like I’m riding on pizza.
Bet it was a lot of dough…
Bet you can't top it though...
Arse...put my comment in quotes...like a dick
Several years ago, inspired by the like of Tobi Leonhardt and Axel Kreuter, I bought myself a lightly used Liteville 301. Unfortunately, where I tend to be, there isn’t much of that type of alpine riding about - non on the Isle of Man (where the 301 is....) and some where I am in Greece. But I have no-one who likes that same sort of stuff (slow, steep, technical) to go riding with and going riding on your own on that sort of terrain is a) a bit risky and b) not much fun, because as everybody knows a clean ride doesn’t count without witnesses.
So, while I’d dearly love to put it to better use I don’t really have the opportunity.
Arse…put my comment in quotes…like a dick
Next time, try the edit button.
Oh dear, yes, I can sympathise with the OP, particularly this:
Basically I think I’m too old, too stiff, too fat, too unfit and have too little time to make it work for me.
I fell for the fashion gravel bike thing; bought one and ended up faffing about with bars, seatpost and stems....oh, and smaller wheels and road plus tyres to try and get comfortable on it. Oh yes, and physio and stretching sessions to try and get my flexibility back to what is was 35 years ago! Bloomin’ thing probably owes me three times what it’s worth!....it does look nice though😄
I did a few mtb races and thought I merited a Lightweight carbon race hard tail.
I didn't, it was never raced once, and whenever I did ride it it was horribly harsh and sucked all fun out of the ride.
Ended up selling the frame after about 100 miles riding it
CX/Gravel bike for me. Bought one a few years back convinced it would get me out for quick blasts when I had little time and could be used for fitness miles with the option of some cheeky BW's.
Never used it. It was a compromised road bike so I had no desire to do road miles and if I wanted to go off road I just took a MTB. Sold it within a few months and toyed with buying a road bike but still haven't as I'm pretty sure the idea of joining the road gang would actually be another unused bike in the garage in reality.